EXIF:XPTitle data to Mac OS-X

[Archive]

[Originally posted by jb on 2009-03-17 16:27:08-07]

Hi,
I have used the XPTitle field to title many of my 10K photos in Windows.  I copied them to the Macs in my family, and, of course, can't see the XPTitle info.  I would like to use exiftool to copy XPTitle to some tag that the Apples can use, either in Preview or iPhoto, or preferrably both.

I experimented with exiftool 7.7.1.0, and can copy EXIF:XPTitle to JPEG:Comment, but Apple doesn't see that either.  Copied EXIF:XPTitle to EXIF:UserComment, and can see that in OS-X, but only in Preview, using Tools/Inspector, then select "EXIF".  So much for the vaunted Apple ease of use.  iPhoto doesn't seem to reconize it at all.

I tried copying XPTitle to EXIF:ImageDescription, but then Windows ignores XPTitle data and shows nothing.

So, I'm looking for a tag that Apple OS-X Preview and/or iPhoto will recognize, so that I can copy my XPTitle info to that tag.  Or a way to get Preview and/or iPhoto to recognize & display a standard tag (such as JPEG:Comment or EXIF:UserComment).

(I tried saving a "KEYWORD" to a jpeg in iPhoto, just to see where it put it in the metadata, and found that it actually DELETED the XPTitle tag completely!  Unbelievable.  iPhoto is really atrocious, but it makes it easy for the Mac users to look at the pictures.)

Thanks Phil for a great program.  I've learned more in 2 days reading the documentation & experimenting than I ever knew.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Jim

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2009-03-17 16:41:57-07]

Hi Jim,

This may depend on what version of OS X and iLife you are running.
Apple is very new to the metadata game, and their apps aren't very
mature yet, so things are changing quickly.  I suggest upgrading to
Leopard and iLife '09 to begin with to see what the current state
of affairs is.  I have Leopard, but not iLife '09.

The usual way to solve problems like this, is to use the other utility
to write a Title to a test file, then use ExifTool to see where it was
written, and use ExifTool to copy XPTitle to the same location.
Of course, this won't work if the Apple utility can't write a Title
or Comment or something like this to begin with.  With my version
of iPhoto, I can't see how to get it to do what you want, and Preview
only writes keywords (with much damage to other metadata as
you discovered).

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by jb on 2009-03-17 17:06:47-07]

Thanks for the incredibly quick response, Phil.

I have Leopard and iPhoto08 (bundled with two new Macs in '08).  Apparently iPhoto keeps all its description info in the iPhoto database, not in the individual photo metadata.  Maybe if I add the description in iPhoto & then "export" the photo it will add it into the metadata... Hmm, I'll look.  I've been quite disappointed in both Preview & iPhoto.  BTW, I had NO idea that XPTitle, Subject, etc., were XP-specific tags until I read your material.  I assumed they were JPEG tags.  They're so easy by comparison (to Apple).  I'm very surprised.

Thanks again for the great work.
Jim

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2009-03-17 17:10:35-07]

Hi Jim,

I just had another idea:

Code:

exiftool '-filename<$XPTitle.jpg' -ext jpg DIR

I'm sure that iPhoto will display the file names.

Just throwing out ideas here...

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by jb on 2009-03-17 18:10:40-07]

Phil,

Aha!

By actually importing (test) photos into iPhoto, modifying Title and Description, and then exporting the photos, I found out that iPhoto writes Title info to "IPTC:ObjectName", and Description to "IPTC:Caption-Abstract".  When I use exiftool to copy EXIF:XPTitle to IPTC:Caption-Abstract, the description I wrote pops up nicely in the Description box in iPhoto.  Hooray.

Caveats: I don't recommend importing photos into iPhoto.  It wastes space & potentially alters the photo.  Also, when I exported the photo from iPhoto it was much smaller, so it must have been recompressed.  Also, the EXIF:XPTitle info was deleted as before.  However, this was just to find out which tags to use, so it doesn't matter.  Now, I can copy the XPTitle tags to IPTC:Caption-Abstract (or IPTC:ObjectName) in my Windows machine before copying (read-only) photos to the Macs.

Thanks again for your great tool & the discussion that helped find the answer.

Best regards, Jim  (I don't know how to insert line breaks in this...)

[Archive]

[Originally posted by r4ndom on 2009-03-18 06:15:08-07]

Hi JB,

at this moment, I wouldn't recommend using iPhoto anywhere else but at the end of a tagging workflow. I have iPhoto '09 installed to test its "Places" feature and was appalled by the way it keeps any metadata information strictly inside its database, crippling it severely on export.

Additionally, the choice of tags it displays is not documented - it's your guesswork which tag you are seeing/modifying.

Another caveat is the metadata panel of Mac Preview. Firstly, it has problems with displaying special characters (like German umlauts, French accents and so on): it simply cuts off the tag's content at where the special character is. Then it does something very funny when displaying EXIF timestamps: look at the EXIF tab, change your Mac's system timezone, and then look at it again. Maybe Apple thinks it courtesy to adjust displayed EXIF timestamps to your Mac's timezone, but it certainly isn't what you'd expect.

So, use ExifTool if you want to be on the safe side. Phil's done marvellous work there.

- Leo

PS: I have published a review under http://studio.messlinger.com" target="_blank">http://studio.messlinger.com on the Places feature, if you're interested (even though I wasn't using ExifTool back then to check tag integrity, the outcome is still devastating).